Ubiquitination-mediated protein degradation and modification： an emerging theme in plant-microbe interactions

Post-translational modification is central to protein stability and to the naodulation of protein activity.Various types ofprotein modification,such as phosphorylation,methylation,acetylation,myristoylation,glycosylation,and ubiquitina-tion,have been reported.Among them,ubiquitination distinguishes itself from others in that most of the ubiquitinatedproteins are targeted to the 26S proteasome for degradation.The ubiquitin/26S proteasome system constitutes the majorprotein degradation pathway in the cell.In recent years,the importance of the ubiquitination machinery in the controlof numerous eukaryotic cellular functions has been increasingly appreciated.Increasing number of E3 ubiquitin ligasesand their substrates,including a variety of essential cellular regulators have been identified.Studies in the past severalyears have revealed that the ubiquitination system is important for a broad range of plant developmental processes andresponses to abiotic and biotic stresses.This review discusses recent advances in the functional analysis of ubiquitina-tion-associated proteins from plants and pathogens that play important roles in plant-microbe interactions.     

林木抗病基因工程研究进展

植物抗病性是当前植物病理学中研究的热点和难点之一。着重讨论植物抗病机制、抗病基因的转化方法及其在林木抗病基因工程中的应用情况,并对现阶段林木抗病基因工程中存在的主要问题和应用前景进行了讨论。     

体外培养的小梁细胞表达水通道蛋白-1

目的观察体外培养条件下的牛眼小梁细胞(bovine trabecular meshwork cell,BTMC)是否表达水通道蛋白-1(Aquaporin-1,AQP-1)。方法采用免疫组织化学方法检测AQP-1在BTMC上的表达,并进行半定量分析。结果正常BTMC可见AQP-1蛋白表达,其灰度值为:167.94±1.18;阴性对照为:195.64±1.62,统计学分析其差异具有显著性(P<0.05)。结论在体外培养条件下,BTMC表达AQP-1,这有助于在体外条件下研究房水流出阻力、并探讨青光眼的药物治疗。     

响应面方法优化菊粉酶液体发酵培养基的研究

目的：为提高菊粉酶的产量。方法：运用Plackett-Burman设计法和响应面分析法,对Kluyveromyces S120液体发酵生产菊粉酶的培养基进行了优化。首先通过Plackett-Burman方法对8个相关影响因素的效应进行评价,并筛选出了有显著正效应的菊芋粉、玉米浆、(NH_4)H_2PO_4等三个因素,其他五个因素没有显著影响。然后根据Box-Behnken的中心组合设计实验和响应面分析方法确定了上述三个主要影响因素的最佳浓度。结果：在优化培养基下,菊粉酶产量为102．82u/mL,是优化前的2．1倍。     

松山自然保护区各功能区植被动态及变化格局

作为全球生态保育的基石,保护区管理和设计成为研究热点。本研究旨在描述不同功能区在相应保护措施下植被的差异性变化。运用遥感和GIS技术以及景观分析手段,利用两期Landsat5TM影像提取出北京松山国家级自然保护区1987、2001年的归一化差值植被指数(NormalizedDifferenceVegetationIndex,NDVI)信息,对植被动态进行分析,并按变化率分为减少、无变化和增加3种类型,利用景观指数刻画出变化格局,就植被动态及其变化格局在不同功能区的空间分异性进行比较。得到以下主要结论:(1)保护区建立后植被大体稳定并有所改善,形成核心区>缓冲区>实验区的植被覆盖梯度。(2)在绝对保护措施下,核心区植被稳定性高并得到进一步改善。植被稳定类型集中于区域中心,增加类型聚集在区域边缘,减少类型与自然植被动态特征相符呈随机分布状态。(3)受经营、开发措施影响,实验区稳定性低,变化面积大、变幅大、增加与衰退共存,植被覆盖居全保护区最低且有退化趋势。(4)缓冲区植被动态呈现出一定的随机分布格局。     

Human Flt3L Generates Dendritic Cells from Canine Peripheral Blood Precursors: Implications for a Dog Glioma Clinical Trial

Background

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor in adults and carries a dismal prognosis. We have developed a conditional cytotoxic/immunotherapeutic approach using adenoviral vectors (Ads) encoding the immunostimulatory cytokine, human soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (hsFlt3L) and the conditional cytotoxic molecule, i.e., Herpes Simplex Type 1- thymide kinase (TK). This therapy triggers an anti-tumor immune response that leads to tumor regression and anti-tumor immunological memory in intracranial rodent cancer models. We aim to test the efficacy of this immunotherapy in dogs bearing spontaneous GBM. In view of the controversy regarding the effect of human cytokines on dog immune cells, and considering that the efficacy of this treatment depends on hsFlt3L-stimulated dendritic cells (DCs), in the present work we tested the ability of Ad-encoded hsFlt3L to generate DCs from dog peripheral blood and compared its effects with canine IL-4 and GM-CSF.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Our results demonstrate that hsFlT3L expressed form an Ad vector, generated DCs from peripheral blood cultures with very similar morphological and phenotypic characteristics to canine IL-4 and GM-CSF-cultured DCs. These include phagocytic activity and expression of CD11c, MHCII, CD80 and CD14. Maturation of DCs cultured under both conditions resulted in increased secretion of IL-6, TNF-α and IFN-γ. Importantly, hsFlt3L-derived antigen presenting cells showed allostimulatory potential highlighting their ability to present antigen to T cells and elicit their proliferation.

Conclusions/Significance

These results demonstrate that hsFlt3L induces the proliferation of canine DCs and support its use in upcoming clinical trials for canine GBM. Our data further support the translation of hsFlt3L to be used for dendritic cells'' vaccination and gene therapeutic approaches from rodent models to canine patients and its future implementation in human clinical trials.     

Pre-clinical drug prioritization via prognosis-guided genetic interaction networks

The high rates of failure in oncology drug clinical trials highlight the problems of using pre-clinical data to predict the clinical effects of drugs. Patient population heterogeneity and unpredictable physiology complicate pre-clinical cancer modeling efforts. We hypothesize that gene networks associated with cancer outcome in heterogeneous patient populations could serve as a reference for identifying drug effects. Here we propose a novel in vivo genetic interaction which we call 'synergistic outcome determination' (SOD), a concept similar to 'Synthetic Lethality'. SOD is defined as the synergy of a gene pair with respect to cancer patients' outcome, whose correlation with outcome is due to cooperative, rather than independent, contributions of genes. The method combines microarray gene expression data with cancer prognostic information to identify synergistic gene-gene interactions that are then used to construct interaction networks based on gene modules (a group of genes which share similar function). In this way, we identified a cluster of important epigenetically regulated gene modules. By projecting drug sensitivity-associated genes on to the cancer-specific inter-module network, we defined a perturbation index for each drug based upon its characteristic perturbation pattern on the inter-module network. Finally, by calculating this index for compounds in the NCI Standard Agent Database, we significantly discriminated successful drugs from a broad set of test compounds, and further revealed the mechanisms of drug combinations. Thus, prognosis-guided synergistic gene-gene interaction networks could serve as an efficient in silico tool for pre-clinical drug prioritization and rational design of combinatorial therapies.